In an age when Google can let a traveller know every tiny detail about a city, you still need "the human factor" to bring the city to life. How do you decide which restaurant best meets your tastes? If you only have an afternoon, what's the one thing you must do to get to know a place? What if you forgot your dress shoes at home and you need to shop for a new pair before tomorrow's important business meeting?
For hotel guests around the world, they can spend hours trolling the internet or they can ask their concierge.
The British Columbia chapter of Les Clefs d'Or the international association of professional concierges has recently produced a video to let tourists know that there is a warm welcome awaiting them in BC. "We Are Waiting For You" is both an invitation and a promise in invitation to visit an incredibly beautiful province and a promise that you will get the most of your time here thanks to the concierges' knowledge.
"Tourism is more than an industry; it is the way people come together," said Stéphane Mouttet, president of the BC Les Clefs d'Or at the official "unveiling" of the video December 3 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. "I believe we make a difference with our commitment to quality and excellence."
He got the idea for the video on an Air Canada flight last Christmas. The airline showed a video of Air Canada pilots and staff making the promise to get travellers home for Christmas. "We should do something like that," he thought to himself. Then he listened to a CD by French-born Vancouver singer Loig Morin, "Je t'attends", I am waiting for you. Suddenly Mouttet had the theme of the video.
Not only did Morin provided the upbeat, joyful song for the video, but he also directed it, working with director of photography Brunella Battista, Mouttet and the secretary of the BC chapter Shelley Hayashi. They filmed member concierges at Air Canada (at the Vancouver airport), Vancouver, Whistler and Tofino (Wickaninnish Inn), everyone smiling in anticipation of their guests' visit. While the video also highlights clips supplied by Tourism Vancouver, Rocky Mountaineer, Whistler and Wickaninnish to give it the "wow" factor, there are several delightful shots of concierges doing the Abbey Road walk across Gastown, writing in the snow at Whistler and dancing on a Tofino beach in their bright yellow raincoats.
Tellingly, apart from an ocean arrival at Wickaninnish, the video does not highlight any of the hotels where the concierges work. As Virginia Casales, the visiting president of the international concierges, said, "we are the experts of every destination. Our members open doors to 126 million guests a year."
Mouttet hopes that other partners in tourism will share the video as a wonderful way of letting people know that Vancouver is waiting for them.
